The Importance of Personal Evolution for Your Small Business

By Jim Blasingame April 01, 2024

Have you ever said, “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up”? Of course, we all have. Have you ever thought of those words as limiting? Taken literally, they indicate that you will only be one thing when you grow up.

Don't misunderstand:  Having a goal is both admirable and eminently practical. No one should be sailing around, willy-nilly, without some kind of professional or personal rudder. In today's marketplace, however, most of us will not only change jobs several times in a career, we will likely change industries more than once. Consequently, it can be professionally dangerous to limit our energy and resources to a narrow field of endeavor.

Too narrow a focus can also be boring. A life lived should be much more than what you want to be when you grow up. In Steve Chandler's book, 17 Lies That Are Holding You Back and the Truth That Will Set You Free, there is this quote from Alan Watts, "Thinking that the self must remain constant for life to have meaning is like falling helplessly in love with an inch."

Are you an inchworm? I believe in the importance of, and potential for, personal evolution. I intend to be a different person today than I was ten years ago, and look forward to the changes of the next ten.

Darwin's theory of natural selection is alive and well in the marketplace and in society:  Adapt or become extinct – grow or become boring. If you become the latter, your subsequent extinction will go unnoticed.